Introducing the Canada Project: Celebrating 150 Years of Canada

Is there a Canadian sound? If so, does it sound like Nickelback? Celine? The Hip? Drake? …Michael Buble?

The answer to these questions—to all of them, it turns out—is “Yes.” There are a lot of Canadians out there, from a lot of different ages, regions and backgrounds, and they have a lot of different tastes. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, we decided to find out what those tastes are. And if there’s anything we can all agree on.

To that end, Maclean’s and our partners across Rogers Media commissioned a representative survey of more than 1,500 Canadians from across the country by Abacus Data. We asked Quebecers and British Columbians, new immigrants and fourth-generation families, millennials and boomers, parents and singles, everything from big political opinions, to those matters of taste—in music, film, travel, food, and everything else—and we also asked some intensely personal queries.

The result is The Canada Project, and for the next month we’ll be telling you what Canadians chose, but we’ll also be going much deeper, to try and find out why they made those choice, what are the stories behind them and what do they mean for the next 150 years?

So what did we learn? A lot. That Nickelback—no, really—is a Canadian treasure, and not a national embarrassment, by a margin of 69 to 31 percent. That Reynolds is our favourite Ryan and Kiefer is our favourite Sutherland. That we all love the incomparable Celine Dion, and that Baby Boomers love Michael Buble, but Millennials love Drake. (Like you didn’t know that one, already.) That two bands tied for the honour of greatest in Canadian history and one man towered above everyone else as Canada’s musical icon.

But beyond what we listen to in the car, we wanted to know how much time we spend in our vehicles, or on public transit. How bad are our commutes? When we travel, where do we want to go? When we marry, will we change our names? When we lie in bed and worry about our family’s future, what’s on our mind? How much money do we have in the bank? Would we really be cool with selling pot in grocery stores? And who is “Canada’s team”, anyway?

“Canada and Canadians are diverse, interesting, and full of surprise,” says David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data. “When you start to unpack the data from this study, the picture it paints is amazing.”

“Canadians are optimistic yet worried about the future. They are proud of their country but see plenty of opportunities to improve it. On many things different Canadians from different genders, generations, regions, and backgrounds share the same views, but on just as many we find sharp differences.”

This post is part of the Canada Project, a representative survey of Canadians from across the country. You can find out more right here.